JERUSALEM.-The Israel Museum has recorded an unprecedented attendance during July, welcoming over 83,000 visitors throughout the month. During this period visitors included local and international tourists and groups of all ages participating in a wide range of summer programs. Visitors were enticed by new exhibitions including: Beuys | Kantor: Remembering, White Gold: Revealing the Worlds Earliest Coins, A World Apart Next Door: Glimpses into the Life of Hasidic Jews, and Crossplay: Male Actors, Female Roles in Kabuki Theatre among others.

We are thrilled to see Museum attendance reaching beyond our expectations and breaking our own historical record for the month of July, said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum. We are enjoying a gratifying response to our current exhibitions and to the collections on display in the renewed Museum. Both first-time and repeat visitors are adding to the dynamism of our campus, and we are grateful for this widespread enthusiasm and support," said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum.

In the first half of 2012, the Museum recorded close to half a million visitors, following on from 2011, when attendance statistics exceeded those of previous years with a total of nearly 820,000 visitors. Since completing the comprehensive renewal of its 20-acre campus, with new galleries, service facilities, and public spaces, the Museum has been able to expand its offerings to serve a broader and more diverse audience.

On June 19, the Museum opened the exhibition A World Apart Next Door: Glimpses into the Life of Hasidic Jews which remains on view through November 30, and which is receiving as many as 1,000 visitors each day, drawing from audiences that are not traditionally visitors to the Museum.

During July, the Museum also hosted a number of important cultural events, among them Contact Point, a program of exciting one-time encounters between artists and aspects of the Museum and its campus, produced in conjunction with the Jerusalem Season of Culture, which drew over 5,000 participants for one evenings event, and the Ninth Annual Jerusalem Wine Festival, a celebration of wine tasting from the leading wineries in Israel, which served more than 10,000 participants over four evenings.